Press & Media

Welcome to the
Classy press room.

Classy was founded in 2006 by a group of friends who were frustrated by how hard it was to support a cause in a way that was easy, meaningful, and modern. Today, Classy is a social enterprise that creates world-class online fundraising tools for nonprofits, modernizing the giving experience to accelerate social impact around the world. Since 2011, fundraising on the Classy platform has doubled each year—resulting in thousands of nonprofits collectively raising over half a billion dollars. Based in San Diego, CA, Classy is trusted by organizations of all sizes, from the fastest-growing nonprofits like Team Rubicon and The Trevor Project, to some of the world’s largest social organizations, such as Acumen, Robin Hood Foundation, and Shriners Hospitals for Children. Classy also hosts the annual Classy Awards to spotlight the innovative work nonprofits are implementing around the globe.

In the News

Our founding story.

From Left to Right: Marshall Peden, Scot Chisholm, Pat Walsh

Classy Awards 2016, PCI

Scot Chisholm & Mom, Debra Chisholm

Back in 2006, a group of my friends and I decided that we wanted to dedicate some of our spare time
to fundraise for an important cause that was near and dear to our own hearts — the fight against
cancer. My mother had battled breast cancer twice as I was growing up, and most of my friends also
had similar stories.

Our initial fundraising idea was simple… really simple. The idea was to get our friends
together for a pub crawl in Pacific Beach, San Diego and donate the extra cash to the American
Cancer Society. As we were coming up with the idea, the movie Anchorman with Will Ferrell
happened to be playing in our apartment, and we quickly jumped at the chance to name our first
fundraiser after Ron Burgundy’s catchphrase in the movie, “You Stay Classy,
San Diego”. And thus, the StayClassy charity pub crawl was born.

Over the course of the next four years we hosted dozens of fundraising events in our spare time:
first pub crawls, then concerts, then races and more. Each event benefited local nonprofit
organizations, and engaged young people in philanthropy in new and cool ways.
Continue reading…

However, as time went on, we began to uncover a much greater challenge than how to simply rally
our friends together to raise money. It started with our experience donating to the American
Cancer Society after our first event, and became more obvious as we worked closely with our
nonprofit partners. It boiled down to this:

A new wave of young people were hungry to change the world, but nonprofits seemed to be
missing the opportunity to engage these modern philanthropists in a meaningful way.

We realized that if the overall experience of giving (especially online giving) wasn’t
improved for this next generation of philanthropists, nonprofits — and the causes they
champion — would be in trouble. Someone needed to step in and help fill this gap. And so,
we set off to build an online fundraising platform that would help connect our young event
attendees with our nonprofit beneficiaries in a more meaningful way. At first the Classy
platform simply facilitated the event registration and the peer-to-peer fundraising leading up
to our own events, but within a short amount of time, it was easy to see the potential of what
we had built. Our attendees were using the platform to tell their own story and raise money from
family and friends with this simple, intuitive and modern tool at their disposal. The result?
Our fundraising events started raising more money than ever.

So in January 2011, five years after the original StayClassy charity pub crawl, we launched a
much improved version of the Classy fundraising platform and opened it up to any nonprofit
organization that wanted to use it for its own campaigns and events. From that point forward we
began focusing 100% of our time on fulfilling this new vision of an improved giving experience
for every cause-based organization in the world.

Today, Classy is a staff of 220+ people and serves more than 4,000 nonprofit organizations and
social enterprises around the world including Oxfam, The World Food Programme and National
Geographic. Through a combination of online fundraising, mobile and community engagement tools,
our platform helps organizations create a better giving experience for their own supporters, so
they can spend their time tackling humanity’s greatest challenges.

Our team is eight years in so far, yet we have never been more energetic and motivated to tackle
the challenges ahead. As the world’s problems grow more complex, it’s going to take
a united & global effort to ensure that future generations inherit a planet that they can
be proud of. Nonprofits and social enterprises are on the front lines trying to make this a
reality and our ability to help people support to these efforts has never been more important.

FAQs

How does the Classy platform work?

Social impact organizations (nonprofit organizations & social enterprises) can launch online
fundraising campaigns and events in a matter of minutes for specific projects or year-round
initiatives that help them fulfill their mission and solve the world's social problems.

Each campaign or event can be created in minutes and designed to match the organization’s branding
and easily integrated into their website. As the organization starts to raise money, we track
everything on the back-end to help them analyze how they’re doing and to strengthen relationships
with their supporters over time. Learn more.

Who are Classy’s customers?

Classy’s customers include over 4,000 of the world’s top nonprofit organizations and
social enterprises including Oxfam America, World Food Program USA, Teach for America and National
Geographic. Our customers range from high-growth social good startups to some of the most
respected nonprofit brands in the world.

At any moment there are thousands of campaigns that are being run on Classy. We’ve had the
honor of powering some of the most successful online fundraising campaigns of all-time, including
Pencils of Promise’s ‘Schools 4 All’, Invisible Children’s ‘KONY
2012’ and Team Rubicon’s ‘Hurricane Sandy Campaign’.

Currently we allow nonprofit organizations and social enterprises from the United States and Canada
to use the Classy platform. We have plans in the near future to open it up to Australia and several
European countries.

We also work with Corporate Foundations and select corporations to power employee fundraising. If
interested, give us a shout at corp@classy.org.

Who are the people behind Classy?

We’re 220+ passionate people working out of a historic building in downtown San Diego’s
Gaslamp district. Although we settled in sunny San Diego, we hail from all over the country. Our
team is eight years in so far (four as a fundraising events company and four as a software
company), but feels like we’re just getting started.

What is Classy's Business Model?

Classy offers a variety of subscription plans that suit any sized organization, starting with a
free plan. Classy applies an industry-low revenue share for the funds that are raised through the platform
ranging from 0-5% depending on the subscription plan that is chosen. Classy does not apply a fee
to offline donations that are logged through the platform (but not actually raised online).

What is the Collaborative + Classy Awards?

The Collaborative is an annual, three-day experience
that convenes top leadership from across the social sector and showcases the most innovative solutions to today's global problems. The event
culminates with the Classy Awards, a ceremony celebration that recognizes excellence in social
innovation. Select members of the media are invited to cover or attend the event.